


Piper

by loveanddeathandartandtaxes



Category: Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, fairytale adaptation, not exactly a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-09
Updated: 2013-06-09
Packaged: 2017-12-14 11:21:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/836331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveanddeathandartandtaxes/pseuds/loveanddeathandartandtaxes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hamlin is plagued by rats. A traveling musician offers to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Anne was a simple girl. Her parents had grown up together, married young, and had eight surviving children in fifteen years. Anne was the fifth child and second girl. She had a boisterous and happy childhood, tempered only by the constant presence of the rats. Hamlin was constantly afflicted by huge numbers of the rodents. The townspeople had the best rat-catching cats, but they caught all they could with little effect. The children, even the youngest, took pride in catching and killing them. Sometimes they would find a barn totally infested with rats, and it was inevitably burnt down. The cost on the people, though shared, was a great burden.

She was thirteen when a brightly-dressed travelling musician offered to rid Hamlin of its rats. The town elders nearly laughed him out the gates, but he insisted. Anne watched the handsome young man plead with the elders.  
“If I kill all your rats by the end of the day, what will you pay me?”  
“By the end of the _day_?” old William repeated incredulously. He was not the oldest, but many townspeople, Anne among them, thought him the wisest. “Whatever you ask!”  
“One hundred gold,” the young man blurted.  
The other elders clamoured that the price was too high, but old William waved them down.  
“Lad, if there is not a rat alive in Hamlin by sundown, you will have your hundred gold coins. If there is, you will leave immediately, for I do not tolerate being teased.”

Racing after him as he strode around the town, Anne pulled on his coattails.  
“Mister! Mister, what are you going to do?”  
He looked down at her and smiled; she fell instantly in love with him.  
“I’m not quite sure yet, little one,” he replied eventually, smoothing her hair. They continued to pace the streets, Anne taking three steps for two of his. When he stopped, he shushed her before she had a chance to ask anything, and pulled a small pipe from his bright jacket. Putting the pipe to his mouth, he stood still for a long moment, his eyes closed, before blowing a hesitant note, then a second, and a third. The tune became more confident as he played; more lively. Anne had a vague desire to dance. She squealed when the first rat approached, and tried to stamp on it. Rather than run away, however, it scampered around her feet and then circled the piping musician. More soon joined it, and the young man started to walk, confidently, not concerned in the least about stepping on a rat and losing his balance. Anne followed slowly, but when he walked faster, the rats trailing him, she kept her pace, making the sign warding against evil on her chest. 

When she caught up with him, the last of the rats trailing along beside her, he was standing on the riverbank outside the town and still playing the lively music. The rats raced over and around his feet and legs and continued full-speed into the strongly flowing water. His face was flushed and the music, Anne could tell, was coming in puffs as he tried to catch his breath. Only well after the last rodent had been swept out of sight did he lower the pipe from his lips. He bent over, his hands on his knees, as he gulped air.  
“Mister? Can I get you something?”  
He knelt, and then sat, moving gingerly like an old woman.   
“I could do with my hundred coins,” he said wryly, and grinned at her. She grinned back.

 

Old William was surprised when the young musician strolled up to him and asked to be paid, but after some more sprightly townsmen did a thorough search for rats and found none, he grudgingly counted out a hundred gold coins from the town’s small treasury.

“Would you like to come to dinner, little one?”  
“What?”  
“Don’t you have some sort of restaurant, or a nice inn, to get a good meal?”  
“We don’t have many visitors, mister, what with the rats.”  
“You can call me James,” he told her.  
“Only if you call me Anne, not ‘little one’.”  
“Well, Anne, your town might want to build a restaurant. But for tonight, where can I stay?”  
“You can stay with us,” she replied easily. “My sister got married recently, and two of my older brothers also have families of their own, so there’s plenty of space at home now.”  
“So… so how many people in your family are living in your home right now?”  
“Seven, including mama and father, not including the ratters; the cats.”

Anne’s family welcomed James to their tiny, cramped house. The stew Anne’s mother had made was tasty and warming. When the children trotted into the main room in their floaty white nightgowns, they all hugged their mother, kissed their father’s cheek, and smiled at the musician; Anne the widest of all. She rose with the sun, as always, but when she padded quietly into the main room where a mattress had been put down for James, she found only an empty bed, neatly made, with ten of his precious gold coins resting on the flat pillow. She tucked one inside her clothes, and collected up the others to give to her father.

Life in Hamlin was different, but nothing seemed to change. The ratting cats needed to be fed, and distant friends and relatives visited more often and stayed longer, but the novelty very quickly wore off and what was wonderful soon became normal. Anne felt the rest of the townspeople forgot about the piper, but she treasured his memory and his coin, hoping he would one day return to Hamlin.


	2. Chapter 2

The rats returned first. No-one was sure exactly when the first rat appeared, but soon the townspeople noticed them. Still, they didn’t mind. Every town has some rats, they said. It will do our cats good to have something to hunt again. After a year, they had begun to become a nuisance once again. Anne’s older sister had a baby girl; their parents’ fourth grandchild, and the last of her brothers married. Almost two years since James pleaded with the elders, Anne heard a fragment of a tune as she laboriously washed clothes. Her heart leapt as her feet begged to dance. She raced to the front gate, but her mother saw her and berated her. Sulking, she finished the washing half-heartedly, in no time at all. There were three rats in the wash-house alone, and she pulled a face at all of them on her way out.

She was not a child anymore, so she held herself back from literally running up to him and embracing him. Her breath hitched in her throat when she saw him, barely changed in two years. His hair was a little different than she remembered; his face perhaps a little thinner. His gaze slid over and past her, then locked back on her face, and she smiled nervously as he approached.  
“You’re my little friend from before,” he said, and she nodded breathlessly.  
“Yes, sir.”  
“It seems I have failed you.” He made a face Anne couldn’t interpret.  
“No, not at all, sir! There were no rats here for _months_. Then they probably arrived with caravans or in carts, and it was still not too bad. It’s only recently that it’s been bad like it used to be.”  
“Ah. I see. Tell me, is that old man in charge of the elders still around?”  
“Old William? Yes, sir. Are – are you going to drown all our rats again?”  
He cupped her chin in his hand, and stroked her cheek with his thumb.  
“I certainly hope so.”  
“May I watch you, on your pipe?”  
“Of course. You’re my good luck charm.”  
Anne blushed hard.

The elders were more than happy to offer the same deal to him – a hundred gold coins for the eradication of all their rats. Anne gathered up a nephew and carried him on her hip as she followed the piper to the town’s gate.  
“That suits you,” he commented, as he cleaned his instrument.  
“What does?”  
“Holding a child. You look so comfortable, and happy.”  
“I’m happy because you’re here,” she replied, and when he looked at her questioningly she could not bring herself to say anything more; neither an excuse that she was simply happy to see the plague of rats gone, nor the truth that most of her dreams – waking as well as asleep– featured him in some way. The moment stretched, and then he coughed and looked away.  
“Well, here goes.”  
“You can do it,” she murmured.  
The drawing out of the rats went exactly as she remembered; the only difference was that she could more easily keep up to him as he led the rodents towards the river. She gave him water when he was finished, from a skin she had slung over her shoulder earlier.  
“Bless you,” he panted.  
“Will you stay more than one night, this time?” she whispered.   
“Can’t say. Maybe. Maybe the music will move on again before tomorrow morning, and I’ll need to race to catch after it.”  
“What music?”  
“The music now, the music in the air.” She frowned prettily in confusion, and he laughed.  
“I can’t explain it much better than that. I can hear it, where I need to play, what needs to be played.”  
“Are you a spirit,” Anne blurted, “that you talk like that?” He laughed again.  
“No, I don’t think so. I can just hear it.”  
“Does that mean… you won’t come back here again for a long time?”  
“Well, there’s no guarantee of anything in the world, Anne. But if there’s a pretty little dark-haired girl with a child on her hip and a smile on her face to greet me, I might be able to find my way back here sooner.”  
“I’ll miss you,” she admitted to him when they said goodnight. James slid his hand over the tender skin on her face, to hold her neck loosely. He pressed his lips against her forehead.  
“I’ll miss you too, little one.”

He left again the very next morning, before anyone else awoke. Anne shied away from her parents talking about her potential suitors so often over the next year, they eventually gave up. She spent all her spare time with her nieces and nephews, doting on them; teaching them. Slowly, another two years passed, her siblings’ families grew larger, and rats returned again to Hamlin, before Anne heard his piping again.


	3. Chapter 3

She had a niece on her back and she raced to find him. Throwing her arms around him, she shrieked in joy when he did the same, and spun her around. They stood quietly together for a while, nudging foreheads and noses.  
“You came back,” she grinned.  
“I told you I would. Is this another of your siblings’ children?”  
“Yes; isn’t she beautiful?”  
“Very, but not as much as her aunt.”  
Anne blushed brightly, and James brushed his lips against hers. She grinned and ran a hand through his hair.

He had a price of a hundred and fifty gold that day. Old William had passed away some time ago, and the elders grumbled about the cost. James told them to consider that his time and skill was more valuable, now that he was a more experienced musician, and reminded them that a gold coin did not buy as much as it did four years ago. When he asked them to weigh his price against the cost of trying to drive the rats out themselves, they relented. Anne danced behind him as he bewitched the rats out of the town, an assortment of nieces and nephews following her. They returned the children to Anne’s parents’ house, and James stole another kiss from her as he left for the new inn for the night. Anne picked at her dinner, and wandered between the rooms of the house until a sudden compulsion came over her. Throwing a shawl over her shoulders, she slipped out; hurrying to the inn James was staying at. She heard him before she saw him; he was sitting on the balcony, piping, and watching her approach. She scowled at him half-heartedly, knowing he was manipulating her somehow, but he kept playing and she continued inside, and upstairs. An open door led to a comfortable room, and he was standing in the middle of it, smiling around his pipe.  
“How are you doing this,” she asked as she folded her shawl up and placed it on a bench. She stared at it for a second, not remembering taking it off, but couldn’t focus.   
“Stop, please, James,” she requested softly, her hands undoing the braids of her hair. When her fingers, bidden by the music from the pipe, began to unfasten her overdress, she murmured “You didn’t have to bewitch me here. You know I would have come myself.”  
James stopped piping, looking at her carefully. The alien compulsion was gone from her mind, but she continued to fiddle with her clothes.  
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, lowering the pipe.  
“You never spend enough time here to know me,” she replied. “How, even before tonight, you bewitched me.”  
“I’m here now,” he offered, caressing her skin.  
“You’re not going to stay, though, are you.” It wasn’t really a question. “I’m seventeen now; you can tell me the truth.”  
“No.” the answer came from her collarbone, where he was kissing it.  
“So I only have you for tonight.” Anne was standing almost perfectly still, except for her hands, which were assisting James untie her belt.  
“Maybe a few days.”  
“James.”  
“Honestly. I may leave tomorrow, or in a week. I don’t know yet.”  
She considered this, and gave in to his tender ministrations, wanting to have of him what she could, while he was there.

 

Anne woke with a start in the morning.  
“Oh my goodness, my parents! They’re going to kill me.”  
“You’ll be fine,” James murmured, pulling her bare body to his.  
“Promise?”  
“Mm-hmm.”  
“Really?”  
“I promise, Anne.”  
“How do you know?” she asked, curious. When he didn’t answer, she rolled over to look at him.  
“Did you witch them too?”  
“I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me,” he mumbled.  
Anne reached past him to the bedside table where his pipe lay.  
“How does it work?” she picked it up and brought it to her lips.  
“No no, don’t– ” he blurted, and she lowered it. He moved her fingers along the little metal instrument until she wielded it correctly.  
“I don’t think you’ll be able to use it like I will, beautiful, but I can show you how to play anyway.”  
“I’d like that,” she smiled.

They spent three days in the inn, rarely leaving the bed. He shook her shoulder gently to wake her early on the fourth morning, and when she opened her eyes she saw with concern the greyness of his face; his sunken eyes.  
“Are you alright?” she whispered urgently.  
“I couldn’t sleep. Anne, I’m leaving.”  
Her heart wrenched.   
“This is what you were saying before. The music in the land moved on.”  
“Sometime yesterday, yes.”  
She stroked his face. “My darling, if it affects you this much, you should have left yesterday.” Looking deep into his eyes she asked, “Really, though, what are you, that it pulls you like this?”  
“I don’t know,” he admitted, “but I’ve never been so tempted to ignore it, and stay in one place.”  
When she looked at him blankly, he pulled her nose gently.  
“Because I love you, Anne of Hamlin.”  
“Oh, good,” she replied, grinning widely. Despite the intimacy they had shared over the last few days, it was a nice surprise to hear him say it. When she noticed his sad face, she laughed quietly.  
“You silly, handsome man. I’ve loved you for four years.”  
“Has it really been that long?”  
“Really. Now go, before I change my mind and keep you here. Go. Come back when you can.”  
“I promise you,” he said solemnly, and kissed her one last time, before climbing off the bed to pack his meager collection of belongings.

Anne returned home alone, nervously, but her family responded to her arrival with no more notice than if she had gone to the market for a few things; it seemed James’ hypnotic piping had had its effect. She floated through her chores for weeks, keeping the memory of him fresh in her mind. It was months later, when a few rats had already begun to return; sooner than ever before, that she began feeling nauseous for many hours each day, and noticed that her cycle had not come in a long time. Her mother wanted to take her to the healer, but Anne knew what was wrong. When her flat stomach began to bulge, she could not deny it any longer; she was carrying his child. Her father stared at her in stony silence when she told him she was pregnant, while her mother wept quietly, her shoulders shaking. She did not tell them who the father was.  
“Why won’t you tell me?” her father demanded. “Did he threaten you?”  
“No, no! You’ll hate him, for doing this to me… it was a mistake! I’m sorry!” She sobbed at his feet until he relented.

She had loved him, but as his child stretched her stomach and weighed heavily on her back, she began to resent him. She had always wanted a child, but this was a cursed blessing. She would become a mother unmarried, and bring a harsh life down on herself and the child. When the baby made its way into the world, she wept. Only when her new-born daughter was placed on her sweat-damp chest did her heart soften for a moment.


	4. Chapter 4

Little Alice was a sweet infant, and luckily looked much like her mother, although Anne doubted if anyone would have noticed if her child had looked exactly like the piper. When Alice was two months old, James returned once again to Hamlin. Steeling herself, Anne tucked her child into a sling and made her way to the main street. As brightly dressed as ever, he was arguing once more with the council of elders.  
“It’s not even a year since you were here last; the rats are as bad as ever, and you want to _increase_ your cost?”   
“I need to make a living. I can make it to the next town this afternoon if you want to cast me out.”  
“No. You will stay, you will get rid of the vermin, you will get one hundred fifty coins, as last time, and you will leave tomorrow morning.”  
James glared at the elder for a while, then bowed sarcastically. When he turned away and saw Anne, his face brightened, and he strolled over to her. When he got close, she walked away without saying a word, and he followed her to a quiet side-street. He tried to kiss her mouth, but she turned her head away and let him kiss only her cheek.  
“What’s the matter, beautiful? You’re so sweet looking after your nieces and nephews; can you not spend some time with me as well? I’ve missed you so much.”  
“Alice is not my niece,” she replied tonelessly, looking away from him. She absently stroked the snoozing infant’s face.  
“A friend’s child?”  
“No.”  
“Who does she belong to? Surely your mama is too old for child-bearing now.”  
“She’s yours,” Anne whispered. James blinked at her.  
“That’s not a funny joke, darling.”  
“I’m serious. You’re the only man I’ve ever been with, and look! She’s two months old. You were here eleven months ago.”  
He pulled open the sling tenderly, and gazed at his daughter.  
“Alice, did you say?” Anne nodded. When he slipped his hands into the sling to pick the baby up, she helped him.  
“Be careful of her head; you need to support it. And her arms and legs are still all soft.” When she saw he was holding her well, she looked down, not wanting to see him.  
“Hello, tiny one. Alice. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to greet you when you were born. I’m sorry I left your mama to bear you by herself. I don’t know if your mama knows how much I missed her. I really hope she forgives me for leaving.” Anne glanced up to find he was looking right at her. “I love your mama so much, Alice. The music wanted me to pass nearby here, but I had to see her again…”  
Anne looked at him suspiciously.  
“I swear. Let me do my job, and then we’ll spend some time together – the three of us.”  
She sighed heavily.  
“I’ll come to the inn after supper.”  
James nodded. “Wish me luck?” he asked, stroking her arm gently. She leaned towards him for a brief kiss, and whispered “good luck” in his ear. Taking Alice back and tucking her in the sling, Anne turned and returned home.

When she arrived at the inn, he was waiting for her, and took her up to the room he had bought for the night. She laid Alice on the neatly-made bed, with a pillow to each side of her so she could not roll away, and turned to James.  
“This was a mistake,” she said quickly, before he said anything to convince her otherwise.  
“You don’t want to be here?”  
“I don’t mean tonight. I mean us; last time you were here. That was a mistake.”  
“But… I love you, and you love me. How is anything we did a mistake?”  
“Alice needs _more_ than love, James. She needs security… She needs a father.”  
When she looked at him, she knew she had wounded him.  
“I can’t stay,” he whispered sadly.  
“I know! That’s why this is a mistake. I’m not blaming you. It just won’t work. I should go. Don’t look for me next time you’re here.”  
“Anne…”  
She gathered up their daughter.  
“I need to leave.”  
“Just… one moment. Wait just one moment.” He pulled out the pouch of coins that he had been paid earlier that day, and counted out a few coins. Thankful he would contribute partially to Alice’s upbringing, she reached for the loose coins in his hand.   
James looked hurt, holding his hands to his chest; one full of coins, the other with a bag with many more.  
“No, this is my money. Do you really believe I care that little?” He passed Anne the still-full pouch.  
“ _This_ is Alice’s money, and yours.”  
She gaped at him, taking the money mutely. He reached up to stroke her cheek.  
“You really don’t want to see me again?”  
“I want to,” she whispered, “but I really can’t.”


	5. Chapter 5

Alice had just recently acquired a love of walking when her father returned once again to Hamlin. Despite Anne asking him not to, he sought them out soon after he arrived. Reluctantly she let him hold their daughter, talking to her quietly.  
“They’ll not pay me as much as last time,” he told her eventually, “like it’s my fault your plague returns faster than it used to. Have you not tried to find out _why_ your town is cursed like this? My pipe, my music, they _work_. They drive out every single rat here. And yet they return, as many as before.”  
“My papa thinks, maybe even more than there used to be, more than when I was little.”  
“I can’t fix something that big! I would, you know I would. For Alice – for you.”  
“James, don’t.”  
“I have this, now,” he said carefully, pulling out an amulet from underneath his shirt. “It will stop me fathering any children for as long as I wear it.”  
She let him kiss her.  
“Spend the night with me,” he whispered, his breath warm on her cheek. Anne quivered, her body pressed against his.  
“No, but Alice…”  
“Your sister, or parents, can look after her, for one night.”  
Her resolve wavered, and she sighed.  
“Come on. We’ll take Alice home.”

“Are there other towns that you visit more often than Hamlin?” she asked afterwards, as they lay in bed together.  
“Not really,” he replied. “I travel all around the country.”  
“I still have most of the money you gave us last year,” she admitted. “I can only take out one coin now and then, or my family would notice.”  
“I hadn’t thought of that.”  
“No, that’s alright. I was thinking, maybe Alice and I could move away from here. If we went somewhere where no-one knows me… we wouldn’t have to see each other secretly.”  
“Well, I would like that.”  
“Maybe, you… maybe you could ask me to marry you.” He looked at her in surprise and she hid her face under the blanket quickly.  
“You hate that idea, don’t you,” she asked, her voice muffled.  
“No! No, I like that idea. I didn’t know _you_ would like it.” He pulled the blanket back from her face.  
“If I move to somewhere else, and we get married on the way, no-one would have to know we weren’t married when Alice was born.”  
“Having her has been hard on you, hasn’t it,” he whispered.  
“I love her more than anything in the world,” she replied seriously.  
“When I next return, will you come away with me? Will you marry me, Anne?”  
“When will you come back?”  
“When I can.”

 

By the time Alice had her second birthday, Anne’s hope had begun to flag.   
When the first of her younger sisters got married, she determined to have any man who would take her and her daughter.   
She hesitantly accepted when one of the young men who helped in Hamlin’s market offered to walk her home one evening. Henry was courteous and bright; he was apprenticed to the teacher who ran the small school. Arriving at her parents’ house, he kissed her hand and wished her goodnight.   
“I don’t like him,” she heard a familiar voice grumble. Her heart in her mouth, she found him perched in the branches of the tree she stood beneath. James dropped quietly to the ground and then their arms were around each other, and they were kissing desperately.  
“How are you?” she asked breathlessly. He nodded.  
“Good. And you? How’s Alice?”  
“Talking so much. Are we… am I…”  
“Yes,” he replied, and she kissed him again.  
“There’s a man who is expecting us – he will marry us. Then we can find a house a long way away. Anne.” He stroked her face tenderly. “Can you be ready to leave tomorrow morning?”  
“I could be ready in five minutes.”  
“No, get some rest. Tomorrow, you should go before me, first thing in the morning; let me draw out the rats one last time and earn some more money. Then I can catch up to you.”  
“Shall I come to your room at the inn?”  
James thought for a moment, torn.  
“I think you had better not. Then you can say goodbye to your family… even if they don’t realize it.”  
“I’ll miss them – especially the children.”  
“We can have more children of our own,” he promised her, kissing her nose. “Now go; get some sleep.”  
“Sweet dreams. See you tomorrow.”  
“Just get out of Hamlin and go north. I’ll take care of everything here, and then I’ll find you.”  
“I love you.”  
“I love you more.”  
Anne kissed him once more and went inside to bed.

 

She sighed as she packed her bag. Nearly twenty-one, she could fit all that she had to take with her in one small bag, and all that was Alice’s in another.  
“I’ll have to buy pots, and plates, and spoons and knives and everything,” she murmured to Alice.  
“And a wheelbarrow and a pony,” her daughter added. Anne chuckled and kissed her on the forehead.  
“One day.” She helped Alice climb onto her back and hefted the two bags.  
“Ready to go to the markets?” she hoped it was alright to fib to the girl, sure she would tell everyone where they were going, if she knew.  
“Ready.”  
As she walked through the kitchen, her mother said goodbye. Swallowing back tears, Anne hugged her and kissed her before she said goodbye.  
“Oh, what’s all this? Are you alright?”  
“I’m fine,” she whispered.  
“We’re buying spoons and a pony!” Alice told her grandmother.  
“Alright sweety. Look after mummy, yes?”  
“Yes nanna.”  
“That’s my sweet girl. I’ll see you soon.”  
“See you soon!”  
“See you, Mama. Love you.”

They went unnoticed as they left the small town. Turning to the north, Anne began the weary walk, waiting for James to join her.


	6. Chapter 6

“Fine!” he was yelling at the elders. “One hundred coins, even though you _know_ I’m worth more!”  
“I know what my eyes see, piper; rats like there have always been.”  
“At _least_ as many as there have always been.”  
But James was no longer listening; rather, he was stalking away. The sooner he was paid for this job, the sooner he could join Anne.  
His hurry did not extend to his work, however. He was determined to do a good job. When he began playing the quirky little tune, it felt exactly like every other time. The rats raced towards and then around him, and he paced to the edge of town – to the river. The children danced in joy. As always, he kept playing long after the last rat was washed out of sight, even though his breath was coming shorter and shorter. He sat for a while, wishing he had remembered to bring drinking water. Anne always remembered. Eventually he stood and limped back to the elders, feeling far older than twenty-six.  
“It’s done,” he said shortly.  
“Good. Now go.”  
“Happily,” he replied, “as soon as I am paid my paltry fee.”  
“If we still have no rats in a year, you may collect your money when you return.”  
James was speechless for a moment.  
“N… We didn’t agree to that!”  
“Regardless, those are our terms. Travel safely, and we will see you in no less than a year.”  
He glowered as he stalked away.  
“ _Your_ terms, you mouldy old men. As if it’s my fault they come back.” He kicked some stones and watched them fling away, unsatisfied. Looking up from the ground, he noticed a child watching him. The young boy waved at him, and James smiled back, but when the child’s mother noticed and shepherded the child away, his annoyance flared into white-hot rage.

 

He spent only a minute or two planning his song, and then he swallowed a mouthful of water and picked up his pipe. The tune he played was not unlike the rat-herding melody, but this time he had larger followers, and a subtle harmony woven into the tune. Children of all ages mindlessly came to him, older ones helpfully picking up the infants and toddlers. Their parents watched them go without remark, and turned back to their errands and chores. The children danced and sang as they followed him out of the town. He thought he recognized some of Anne’s family, and a twinge of guilt pulled him, but he steeled his resolve and continued. When he stopped playing his pipe, in a cave on the hillside, he caught his breath as the children looked around in confusion. Some of them began to cry.  
“You need to stay here,” he told them firmly. “It’s a long walk back to Hamlin, and it’s going to get dark soon. It’s safer here.”  
James turned to leave, but the older children protested.  
“Where are you going?”  
“I’m going back.”  
“We’ll come with you, then!”  
“You can’t. You might be able to walk that far again, but the little ones can’t. Stay here and look after them.”  
“What are we meant to do?”  
“Wait. Someone will come for you.”  
They grumbled, but knew he was right. James began the walk back to Hamlin.

 

“Demon! What have you done?”  
“Give me my baby back!”  
“Curse you!”  
He ignored the irate crowd, walking straight to where the elders talked urgently. The one who had told James he would not be paid stood to face him.  
“Why have you done this?” he demanded quietly. James looked at him levelly.  
“The fault is your own,” he announced, speaking loudly so his voice carried.  
“I provide you a service. The money I am owed, I need for my future. You have denied me my future, so I shall deny you yours.”  
Whispers ran through the crowd.  
“This town is cursed!” James cried. “A curse that is not of my doing! For more than seven years I have served you; removed your plague. But that is merely a symptom of a larger disease! In your blindness you have not sought to solve this – you just wanted a quick fix from me. And now you deny me my fair payment?”  
A voice rose from the people.  
“Why have you not removed this curse, piper?”  
“That is beyond my power. I have never claimed to do any more than I do. “  
A woman pushed her way to him, where she fell at his feet.  
“Piper, please; where are my children? Are they safe?”  
He helped her to her feet.  
“I promise you, your children are unharmed, but I will not tell you where they are until I am paid.”  
“Pay him!” a man yelled hoarsely.  
“Give him anything he wants!”  
With these cries continuing from the people, James turned back to the elders.  
“Two hundred gold, _now_ , or you never see your children again.”  
The old men were silent a moment, until one stepped forward.  
“This is madness. I have grandchildren. You shall have your money.”  
“Thankyou, sir.”  
“Do not talk to me. I am sure you know you will never again be welcome in Hamlin.”  
He turned away.  
“No problem.”

 

 

Anne waited by the window of the room in the inn that she had rented, watching the road from Hamlin. It was nearly midnight before she saw his figure walking towards her. She rushed downstairs onto the street, and met him at the main gate.  
“James! You’re so late!” she kissed him. “What kept you?”  
He ran a hand over her hair absently.  
“Nothing,” he murmured. “Sorry.”


End file.
